Download or read book Sacred Rivals written by Joseph W. Peterson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-15 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacred Rivals focuses on French Catholic ideas about Islam and Arab-ness in the context of religious culture wars in France and of missionary work in colonial Algeria, highlighting the shift from initial admiration for Islam and optimism about Muslim conversion to Christianity to the disillusionment by the end of the nineteenth century when French Catholics joined in racially coded attacks on "Arab" Islam.